


wherever you stray, i follow

by benditlikepress



Category: NCIS
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Bickering, Dialogue Heavy, F/M, Nature, set s10 time, this is SILLY again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:41:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28528635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/benditlikepress/pseuds/benditlikepress
Summary: Tony’s map-reading skills leave a lot to be desired as he and Ziva try to find their way out of the woods during a storm.
Relationships: Ziva David/Anthony DiNozzo
Comments: 6
Kudos: 31





	wherever you stray, i follow

**Author's Note:**

> the very on the nose title is from taylor swift - willow 💕  
> have I proofread this? no. am I likely to go back and edit it in future? also no. hope u enjoy

“Alright, I’m calling it.”

Ziva sighed as she pulled down her hood, rain finally abating. “No, you are not.”

“We’re screwed.”

“Would you please relax?”

“You’re telling me to relax?”

“Yes. It is not the time for panicking. Freaking out is not going to solve anything.”

“We’re lost in the woods during storm season and our phone just died, Ziva, when is the time to panic if not now?”

In hindsight, giving the map to Tony while she spoke to Gibbs and the base group on the phone had been Ziva’s big error of the day. Still, she’d have thought that his much-referenced A grade in Geography would include at least some rudimentary map-reading skills, and so tried to let go of the gnawing irritation she felt at her own relinquishing of control.

“We are coming back to the right path now, Tony. Trust me.”

“Oh, I trust you. I do. Me on the other hand…” Tony whistled and Ziva rolled her eyes. Tony’s ability to go from irritating cocksureness to self-deprecation really was incredible. “Don’t we have a power pack?”

“I left it in the car – we had another phone so I did not think it a priority.” Ziva thought wistfully about Tony’s phone, now miles back in the direction they were travelling from as a back-up for the search party. The reminder made Tony wince further. She didn’t have the energy to blame him for that now, though: she blamed herself for not checking her battery before they got out of the car. A strange moment of forgetfulness and lax that they both seemed to have suffered from today. “There is no point beating yourself up. Neither of us got any sleep last night. You made a mistake, we got off-course, but the past is the past. Let’s just get back to the car and drive back to the office before dark.”

"You're being nice. Why are _you_ being nice?"

"Right now, I need my energy to get us out of here. I can be irritated with you once we are safe and dry."

“Promises, promises.”

The tone in his voice amused Ziva, and she shook away a small smile as they picked their way through the rain-sodden leafy under-growth through the woods. Every third step seemed to be avoiding a puddle at this point, and Ziva could rarely remember such downpours in her whole time in the States as they’d experienced in the past week.

She _was_ confident she’d got them back on track: though she rarely got the opportunity to practice her navigation skills now she lived permanently in a big city, the basic elements were not things you forgot within a few years.

“You may want to save that smile until later. If I am right, the surface water is likely to get worse before it gets better.”

“Fantastic. I mean, of course it had to rain like this the one day we're out here." 

The path they'd forged so far had alternated on a scale between 'wet leafy mulch with a muddy garnish' to 'river of wet dirt that envelopes your feet', and Ziva had done her best to internalise all of her own irritations so as to keep the higher ground. She'd told Tony to wear boots rather than his work shoes but he'd forgotten, and the last thing she wanted to do was let him realise the pool of water starting to form in her own walking boots. 

Occasionally the two of them fell into a single file line, and when they did she tried to walk away in a way that disguised the squelching. 

"I did not check the forecast before we left earlier, did you?" 

"No. I guess it's on us, huh? Of all the times for us both to have an off day.” 

"Rain washing away all of the potential evidence. If there is a body here at all, of course." 

"If there is, good luck to the rest of them trying to find it. It feels like we searched miles this afternoon already." 

"The team are better trained than we are. Tracker dogs are highly intelligent animals." 

"Rather them than us. McGee's the only tracker dog we need." 

"That is cruel." Ziva said, though her expression and tone defied the words. "And it does not even make sense. What does McG-" 

"Oh my god Ziva. ZIVA! IT'S STUCK!" 

Ziva turned quickly at the sound of her name and tried not to roll her eyes at the sight. Tony was stood, legs wide apart, with his arms up in the air delicately. She looked at his back foot and saw it had become lodged in a deceptively deep area of wet mud, sinking into the ground further as he moved. 

"HELLO? A little help?" Tony didn't wait for her to approach him before complaining again, his arms still out in the air to balance himself as he pulled. 

"You need to pull in one motion and then take quick steps, avoid hesitation." 

"Ah, thanks, I'll try that." 

"Do you want help or not?" Ziva's tone grew terse as she held out her hands to him. He took them gratefully, leaning heavily on her as he dragged his now shoe-less foot out from the mud. 

"You've gotta be kidding." 

“Stay there, I can get it.” She rolled her eyes as she let go of his hand, listening to his protestations as he wobbled with one foot in the air while she retrieved the shoe. “Now, step into it. Yes?” She placed the shoe in front of him so that when he took a step he’d arrive at the insole.

He did so, with little more added amateur dramatics as he brushed himself off. Ziva tried not to laugh at the expression on his face.

“Stay here while I check we are on track.” Ziva lifted the map from her rucksack, using it to obscure her face a little as she followed what she believed to be their current path back to the road where they’d parked earlier that day. “Is your foot dirty?”

“Yeah. Yeah, it is.” There was sarcasm in Tony’s voice but it was directed more at himself than her, and Ziva found herself stifling yet more laughter as he shook it in the air to uselessly try to clean it.

“OK, it’s this way. Come on.”

Tony grew in confidence hobbling on the foot as they continued to move in silence, until he half-stumbled over a rock in his effort to avoid making his shoe any wetter. He picked up the rock and turned it over in his hand, eventually veering off course to place it at the crook of a low branch on one of the trees lining their path.

He didn’t say anything about the action, humming to himself as he stomped his way through the leaves back to Ziva heavily favouring his less mud-caked foot.

"I told you not to wear those shoes." Ziva eventually broke the silence with a quiet, matter-of-fact tone.

"You should've held me down and forced them on me or something. I don't listen." 

"No. You don't." 

"Alright, you know what? I screwed up. So sue me. I didn't realise I was gonna get punished for every mistake as severely as humanly possible."

"Well, that is an exaggeration. You have not needed an amputation. Yet."

"That a threat?" 

"I have not decided." Ziva shrugged, and a little amusement was evident on Tony's face as they continued to weave their way carefully through the trees. “I cannot believe you gave her your phone.”

“Well, I didn’t see you complaining at the time! They said they could handle it.”

“We should have got them all to stay together next to a landmark and then gone back in ourselves. You are supposed to be senior field agent.”

“So I’m boss when it suits you, huh? Anyway, like I said. Rebecca has a handle on it. Just because we’re lost doesn’t mean anything’s wrong back there. They’re probably all back in civilisation now.”

“’ _Rebecca_ ’? You cannot allow bad decisions to overtake your judgement just because you find a woman hot.”

“Oh, like you didn’t think so too!”

Ziva _did_ find Rebecca attractive, so she didn’t say anything. And, truthfully, he was right. They were right to leave a back-up mode of communication with those further out in the woods, and it wasn’t their fault that the two of them had lost their own other form of communication.

“What did or did not happen is irrelevant. Let’s just.. conserve our energy for the journey back, yes?”

“Good idea. I’m hungry already.”

“At least you had lunch, I am starving.”

“I told you to eat, don’t try and ignore that now.”

“Maybe we both should have listened to each other, then.”

“Maybe.”

There was irritation in both of their voices but it was a drama – an attempt to liven up their own self-caused bad moods at the situation they found themselves in. They’d both always got a personal enjoyment out of bickering, knowing exactly which buttons to press to get the other worked up.

“Should’ve seen this coming. Every time people get lost in the woods, they go on a journey of self-discovery.”

“Is that what this is?”

“Uh-huh. I should wear better shoes. Lesson learned.”

* * *

Ziva could see a small drop in the terrain coming up ahead of them, and expected Tony’s silence to be a signal of his reluctance to get down to the lower level. In fact, when she turned to look at him, she adjusted her eyes downwards to see him crouched down picking up another rock. He threw this one in the air a couple of times before dropping it onto the nearby tree.

“What are you doing, Tony?”

“I- think we have bigger issues at hand.” Tony trailed off as he re-joined Ziva and looked out ahead of them at the 3-foot-deep drop, and the stream of muddied rainwater underneath stretching as far as the eye could see in either direction. "You could've mentioned this." 

"How was I supposed to be aware of this? I had to start blindly. For all we know, you could have been leading us off the edge of a cliff-face." 

"I mean, seems unlikely." Tony chuckled but soon quietened when he saw Ziva's expression. "Fair enough. Let me just.." He looked down the ledge onto the floor below with a frown. 

"It is not as high as it looks.” 

"I know. It's what's underneath I'm thinking about." 

Ziva jumped down without saying another word. The ground underneath _was_ waterlogged, but she managed to gain enough purchase on it to step off the worst quickly and look back up at Tony. She lifted her hands towards him, and he studied them suspiciously.

“What?”

“Sure you’re not gonna pull me and then drop me into it?”

"You cannot be serious.”

“I don’t know. You’ve been very understanding about this whole thing. For you, I mean.”

“You think I’m not nice usually?” Tony hummed, catching her gaze with a mock show of consideration. She sighed. “Seriously, Tony, will you please just take my hand?" 

"When do I get to take your whole life, too?" 

"Right now, if you listen to me." 

Tony relented and placed his hand into the one Ziva had been holding up in front of her face. His palm was clammy and wet in a way that made her want to immediately wipe her own.

"Why is it so _sweaty_?" 

"It's called nerves. Human beings get them sometimes, I understand your confusion." 

"I did not know you were afraid of heights. If you can even call this a height, that is." 

"It's not this I'm scared of, alright? It's all of this. We're in the middle of nowhere and it's gonna be getting dark soon and so you know how many deadly injury documentaries start off this way?" 

Ziva checked the watch on her wrist, and said a silent prayer of thanks for pre-digital technology. “We still have two hours until sunset. So long as you step down in the next 90 minutes, I am sure we will be fine.”

“Don’t rush me, I’m coming.”

“I am sure it is not the first time you have said that.” Ziva smiled at Tony as he met her eyes with an eyebrow raise from above, and without hesitation he jumped down to meet her. He managed to avoid the worst of the water, though splashes made their way up into the air and onto the bottom of each of their trouser legs.

Their hands grasped onto each other for a fraction too long before Tony pulled away, flicking and wiping his jacket of imaginary dirt. 

“I know what you’re doing.”

“What do you mean?”

“Never mind. I see you.” He squinted his eyes at Ziva, who remained innocent as they turned away from each other and started to walk again. “Let’s just get outta here quickly, alright? Before anything else happens.”

The hint of flirtation in his voice was gone, replaced with that same uncertainty and trepidation that she’d first heard when he’d realised they were lost.

“At least it is not raining anymore.”

“Yeah, it’s party-time.”

Ziva stopped walking in front of Tony and spun to face him. The sarcastic, tired expression on his face faded into confusion as she frowned.

She cupped his forearm with her hand. 

"Tony." Her voice was clearer than she expected and it commanded his attention, his eyes wandering around the surroundings a little before fixing permanently on her own. "I have done this a hundred times before, alright? Since I was young - far too young to have been told to, I am sure, I have been finding my way out of woods like this. I understand that you are nervous but I want you to trust me, because I am confident that everything is going to be fine. OK?"

He nodded at her, strange sincerity invading their expressions in the aftermath of words that had come as a surprise even to herself. 

They had both been working hard lately, case after case piling up without break, and she supposed his nerves and frustrations today weren't simply a result of the situation but a combination of things. Sometimes knowing someone recognised how you were feeling went a long way. 

She let go of his arm and turned her back on him, and slowly the two of them began to move again. 

"Your dad was an asshole, by the way. For making you do all that stuff as a kid." 

"We are not going to talk about my father right now.” 

"Hey, you bought it up." 

"Yes. To reassure you. The more you go over the thought, the worse you will build it up in your head. Let’s think about something else.”

“Alright. Shoot.”

“I am curious.” Ziva assessed, watching Tony pick his way through twigs wobbling on his good foot. “You have been out in parks like this a hundred times, and I have seen you guide your way around before.”

“You think I don’t know what I’m doing right now?”

“No. I don’t.”

“Alright. Well..” Tony hesitated, before a smile played on his cheeks. “Yeah, I have no idea where we are or what the hell’s going on since I lost track on the map. It’s the rain, everything looks off and things have moved.”

“It happens. It is one of the most important things to remember about nature – the way things can play tricks on you depending on the day or time or weather.”

"These woods always look the same to me." 

"It is about patterns. Yes? Recognising where things in the scenery fall in relation to each other. Remembering things about our journey into the woods that we can reverse."

"Alright. So.." Tony stopped walking and looked around with a concentrated frown. "There was a hill, right? On the way in. And we're going downhill to try to reverse that. There's a clearing to the right of us and I know we walked through one earlier, so.." Ziva watched his genuine concentration with a smile as he looked around, finger on his chin. He seemed to trail off as an invitation, and when Ziva didn't jump in he looked down at her. She saw him react to her stare, his eyes lighting up in amusement. "What?" 

"Nothing. I am just glad to be running off on you."

"Rubbing. Please don’t run off on me. But actually, there's something you forgot." 

"Oh?" 

"It's important to mark your trail." Tony grinned as he picked up another rock and placed it on a low branch of a nearby tree. 

Ziva chuckled, berating herself for not realising earlier that that was what he was doing. “You surprise me.”

“What – you think I’m just over here freaking out?”

“Yes, a little.”

“Well, that’s where you wrong _Miss David_. Y’see, I’m full of surprises.”

“Is that so?”

“When I’m not sleep-deprived, yeah. Obviously that’s every day right now so I can understand why you might’ve forgotten.”

“I am not so sure about that. You have always found a way of keeping me on my toes.”

“Through a mutual ability to irritate each other? Or..” He trailed off, the worry between his eyebrows predictably lifting a little as the air charged.

“I think I will leave that an open question.”

“I see. I’m not the only one who can keep you guessing, huh?”

“I-” Before Ziva could continue talking, Tony grabbed her arm harshly. She went to shake it away but saw that he’d stopped dead, eyes wide and focused on a spot across her.

“There’s something over there.”

Ziva followed Tony’s eyes to a set of trees several hundred feet away. She had heard it a couple of seconds ago; the sound of a twig breaking in the distance. Though it was wise to always be alert, such an event rarely made any impact in the woods. 

“It is just an animal, Tony. As long as we do not disturb it, there will not be a problem.”

"Oh, an animal, huh? In case you haven't noticed we're here on a murder investigation."

"We tried and failed to locate a possible body a couple of miles away from where we stand. We are hardly being held at gunpoint." 

"Oh you'd love that, wouldn't you?" 

Before Ziva could respond, she heard the noise again. This time, it was accompanied by the definite shadow of a movement from behind the trees Tony had pointed towards before. His grip on her arm got tighter.

"What do you do if you see a black bear? Quick, what do you do?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"Are you kidding? You love this stuff!"

"Getting eaten by bears?"

"Just - god, quick!"

"It is not a bear, Tony. But if it was.. we need to not run. Wave our arms and shout at it. Black bears are timid."

"Uh. Hey, Mr Bear. These are not the droids you're looking for." 

"I am not sure deadly wild animals will be won over by your movie references." 

"Just trying to not get eaten here, Ziva."

"Black bears rarely attack people."

"But they have done, right?"

“Tony – please just-“ Ziva was stopped in her tracks again, as the presence behind the tree moved. She smiled, a little, and looked up at Tony. “Unless black bears have grown back legs and hooves, I think we are going to be alright. It is a deer, see? Crisis averted." 

The deer emerged a little more, allowing Tony to get a proper view of its small smooth face unaffected by the earlier weather. Ziva smiled as she watched the animal pick its way through the leaves quietly, but Tony was frowning.

"Can deers kill people? Don't answer that - probably." 

"What is wrong with you today? We have been here a hundred times before." 

"Not like this. Rainfall, no phones, cut off from society?" 

"I see. I suppose there is a chainsaw wielding maniac waiting behind the next tree for us, yes?" 

“Alright, alright. Poke fun all you want, I just think at least one of us should be on top of what’s going on here.”

“I just think that maybe you are concerned enough for the both of us. Yes?” Tony hummed. “Alright, when you are happy we can keep moving.”

The empathy seemed to off-put Tony, who frowned before starting to walk again.

She knew she could still give him a hard time - it was the nature of their relationship, after all, and so he'd expect it - but she knew she was being soft with him. He knew it too, if his confused grin was anything to go by. 

“I do trust you, y’know.”

“I know you do. You are just scared. It is not often that you feel like this, so I am sure it is disorientating.”

“The _woods_ is disorientating.”

“I have always enjoyed being outside. Living in cities can be suffocating.”

"Ziva, I'm sure plenty of eligible people would kill for a night alone in the wilderness with you. That isn't me." 

"Oh no?" 

"You know me, I need four walls and floor that your feet don't sink into." 

Ziva smiled at his non-attempt to deny the rest of the comment. "Ah, so a night alone with me anywhere else is of interest to you?" 

Tony caught her eye, something sharp and a little addicting glinting in his own. His mouth upturned. “I thought you were mad at me.”

“It is not an offer – merely a point of interest. But anyway, it is irrelevant. We are not going to be here all night, because I have got us back on track.”

"Y'know if you really _have_ got us back on the right path, I'm gonna take you up on that." 

"You will take me up on the offer I did not make to spend the night tonight somewhere with carpeted floors?" Ziva rubbed the edge of her shoe on a rock, dislodging some of the mud that had caked into the sole.

"Wouldn't wanna get dirt on my back." Tony flashed her a grin that sent a funny flurry of excitement through Ziva's stomach.

"I will keep that in mind. Of course, you know I intend you kill you tonight, which may dampen the mood a little." 

"Semantics. We can power through, don't you think?" 

"Romance is not dead."

"Hey, if you want wining and dining.." 

"By the hopping man?”

"This is just a show of my boyish agility. Rugged, y’know. I’m not an outdoorsman but I can think on my feet. I'm no Rebecca." 

"More's the pity." 

The guffaw that Tony gave in response was expected, as was the split-second pause while he thought of a comeback.

“You’re one to talk.”

“I am not the one making a proposition.”

“Oh, is that what this is?”

"Either a proposition, or an attempt to distract yourself from our apparent soon deaths. Perhaps if I believed that too, I would be giving you the time of day." 

"Pretty sure you're already doing that." 

"Why do you think so?" 

Tony leaned towards her, hitting his elbow against hers in a show of understanding while leaning down towards her ear. "Because you bought it up a coupla minutes ago and we're still talking about it." 

"It was you that bought up a night alone with me." 

"I was talking about night hiking. I don't know why your first thought was sex. Says a lot about you." 

"How would we see the black bears if it was dark?" 

"You're an asshole, anyone ever tell you that?" 

"No, actually." 

"Yeah, I'll bet. That's because you save it all for me." 

"Unlike some people who have an unlimited supply to go around, yes?" Ziva blinked at Tony, who rolled his eyes a little in amusement. 

"Alright, let's go back to the innuendo." 

The verbal acknowledgement of any kind of flirtation between them, rare as it came, always made Ziva's chest warm with excitement. 

"It is like I said. Maybe, if this really _was_ our final journey.." 

"You said that before, y'know. When we got trapped in that shipping container." 

"You remember what I said almost 10 years ago?" 

"Of course. Never know when you're gonna need fuel. Anyway, point is. Usually the thing people say they want to do as their last action on earth is really what they want to do most of all." 

"Perhaps it is true." 

"Oh yeah?" 

"It is the perfect scenario, as I would not have to live with my shame afterwards." 

It was a typical tease between them - so on-the-nose and transparent that Ziva was sure even a total stranger could read between the lines and guess that something had almost certainly happened between them before.

"I prefer to think of it more as going out on a high." 

“Lucky for me, we are not going out on _anything_. I expect we will reach the road soon.”

“We’re gonna be alright, but I think my shoes have danced their last.”

“I am very sorry for your loss, Tony, truly I am. I think there are evidence bags in the trunk that you can put them in to keep the mud off the seats.”

"God, how has it come to this. Huh? How did we get here?" 

"Do you really want an answer to that?" 

"It's hypothetical, Ziva. Nobody likes a show-off. Besides, you think I haven't noticed the swimming pool in your boots?" 

"My boots are fine." 

"They aren't, and I know you're doing your best to hide it so I can't be smug."

Tony’s confident smile struck a chord of irritation and confused attraction in Ziva as he winked, and she ignored him to refocus on the ground.

“Seriously, though. We do seem to end up in these situations more than most people. Trapped in a box, or an elevator, or.. 30,000 feet in the air. You think it’s something we said?”

“I do not think it a coincidence. Usually, we are not paying enough attention to our surroundings.”

“That’s true. You’re pretty distracting.”

“I am? It is interesting – that McGee and Gibbs do not seem to have the same issue with me.”

“Yeah, that’s weird.” The two of them shared a look, and Ziva went to smirk, but a sensation on the back of her neck made her jump and her fingers flew to her waist holster. A second later, she relaxed again when she realised a small twig had come loose in the breeze and snapped, hitting her as it fell to the ground.

Less conspicuous than the leaves was Tony, who was now laughing beside her.

“Oh yeah, I’m the scaredy cat huh? You just tried to shoot a leaf.”

“That would not have happened if it had not been for you.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

* * *

When the vague path they had been following turned into a real path, and then a fork turned towards the clearing, Ziva smiled to herself.

“Hey, this is familiar.”

“Do you think so?”

Ziva continued to lead Tony down the path adjacent to the clearing until, in the distance, the gravel of the road came into view. Tony actually gasped alongside her, before making a childish noise of glee. “Roads. Civilisation. Ziva David, you are something else. We don’t deserve you.”

"I think you are starting to get delusional from a lack of food. But yes: you, in particular Tony, do not deserve me. That is definitely true." 

"Hey, I won't deny it. My own personal tracker dog, right?" 

"That is _very_ dangerous territory." Ziva remembered their earlier conversation. "But if you do want to go down that road, I suppose we could talk about how you are one step down from a canine when it comes to traversing nature." 

"Some mammals have other things to think about." 

“Some mammals?”

“Not me. Other ones, though, I’ll bet.”

“You were right. This really has been a journey of self-discovery for you.”

“You think so?”

“I am choosing to ignore the sarcasm and jokes in your tone and accept your words of maturity and change, yes.”

“Well, in that spirit..”

"What?" 

"If I ever try to take over again, you have permission to shoot me." 

Ziva laughed. "I am sure that will last until we get to the car, at which point you will want to drive." 

"Nope. New leaf. You can drive. You can even Thelma and Louise us, I'll go along with it." 

"Susan Sarandon, yes?" Ziva tried to remember hazy details of a film she'd only ever seen half of. "You want to go on the run?" 

"No, I mean at the end where they.." Tony trailed off with a sigh. "Doesn't matter. Point is, I surrender myself to you." 

“Hm, now that _is_ an intriguing proposal.”

“Now who’s propositioning who?”

“Not at all. I have not been at home much lately, and I would love a cleaner to take a look. Although, having seen your apartment, maybe I should think of a more suitable activity."

"Are you kidding? Yours makes mine look like a showroom." 

"Perhaps. However, you keep it so much under lock and key that I am not sure anyone could comment for sure." 

"You angling for an invite to my place?" 

"It is interesting - how you are always so keen to go to others' apartments rather than your own. People could start to wonder if you are not hiding something." 

"Nothing to hide. And hey, to prove it. Dinner tonight. I'll cook." 

"Is this the next stop on your appreciation tour?"

"If you like. Maybe I just wanna hang out with you." 

It was an oddly sincere thing to say and Ziva's eyebrow quirked as she turned to study Tony's face as the clouds began to darken with night. His face was as practiced amused as ever. 

"I'll gladly accept, although I am not sure we will ever get that far." 

"No?" 

"We first have to head back to the office and explain to Gibbs why we are unreachable, several hours late, and covered in mud." 

"Ah. That." 

“Yes, that.”

"This was my fault, but just so you know if you wanna take the hit with Gibbs I will happily stand aside." 

"That is _quite_ the offer, Tony. Thank you."

"Oh, you're welcome. Let me know." 

Ziva caught the glint in his eye and drew her own away, shaking away the smile it elicited. 

* * *

The sun was still just about in the sky when the car came into view alongside the treeline, encouraging another whoop from Tony.

“I’ve never been so happy to see a car in my entire life.”

They approached the car and Tony opened the trunk, dumping both of their bags inside. Ziva retrieved an evidence bag and held it out for Tony who grimaced as he slipped his foot out of his mud-caked shoe and shoved it inside with only his fingertips touching the fabric.

Trunk secure, the two of them made their way to the side of the car.

"We made it back in one piece, huh? Shoe not included." 

"No thanks to you, of course." 

"Of course." The words were tinged with sarcasm and knowing as he nodded. “How’d I do, Ranger David?”

Ziva assessed him fully, appraising him with her eyes as they trailed up and down his body. Tony learned against the car door with his legs and arms crossed and though it was a confident move, cocksure and arrogant, Ziva enjoyed the power she garnered by being the one to encroach on his space.

“Hm. I will give you a C+.”

“Are you kidding?”

“You did leave a trail. Everything else, however, left a lot to be desired.”

“You know what? Fair enough. We got outta there in one piece, I can’t care about the rest. Now, about that offer..." His expression turned to a smile and Ziva feigned indifference, raising her eyebrow as she felt the space between them seem to reduce invisibly.

"You, me, some carpet, and a long night?" 

"Uh-huh." 

"I hear the office carpet is really something special." 

"Oh yeah? I heard that too. Brown is in season, I think." 

“And perhaps.. you can fill in my arrest form. As a token of your gratitude.”

“Is that right?”

"I did also save your life from a deadly bear attack." 

"That's true. Maybe I'll throw in a coffee." Tony recrossed his arms, leaning back further in a way that invited Ziva to step towards him.

"Keep my stamina up for a night on my desk.”

"You got it. That paperwork's not gonna file itself." 

"'Paperwork'?" Ziva repeated with a nod and a slight knowing smile, innuendo clawing at the air between them. 

"For starters. There's a whole night of office-based activity ahead. I hope you can keep up." 

“So confident from a man with one shoe on.”

“Fair enough. After you." Tony implored Ziva to enter the car first, but still didn't move from his leaning position against the driver's side door. 

Ziva smirked, stepping up against him and watching his Adam's apple bob as her fingers snaked lightly down his side and behind his back to find the handle. 

"I'm driving." 


End file.
